From Hope Hicks Purposely Infecting Him To A Giant Publicity Stunt, The Donald Trump Coronavirus Conspiracy Theories Are Wild

2020 isn’t just the year of the pandemic, and well, all bad things. It’s also, very notably, the year of the conspiracy theory. From Covid-deniers to 5G theories to pizza-gate reviving, it seems trust of the powerful is at an all-time low right now. It comes as no surprise then, that after Donald Trump revealed he and First Lady Melania have tested positive for Covid-19, conspiracy theories about the first family are coming in thick and fast.

Most notably after it was announced, Hope Hicks immediately started trending on Google and social media. As counsellor to the President, Hicks – a former model – is reported to have tested positive for coronavirus on Thursday. It is alleged that after this, and after Trump and his team were aware of this, she was still brought on the campaign trail attending a fundraiser with the President in the evening.

Immediately then, she began being blamed for infecting the President. Of course, there’s no way of knowing whether she gave it to him or whether it was one of many other people he’s come into contact with as he continued to play down the seriousness of the virus. We don't even know if there was a chance he could have given it to her.

Yet the wilder theories are not about whether or not Hicks gave Trump coronavirus, but whether she did it on purpose. Yes, really. Some say she’s a secret operative for the left, others say she’s working with the FBI to get him out. Other’s think he used Hicks to contract the virus so he can say he caught it from Joe Biden during Wednesday night’s disastrous debate.

As the conspiracies around Hicks roll in, so do many others with people sharing their suspicions that he doesn't even have Covid-19 at all. That’s right, many are convinced he’s faking testing positive for coronavirus so he will gain sympathy votes – in a similar way that the UK public rallied behind UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson after he caught coronavirus. It would also, they say, allow him to conveniently miss important debates against Joe Biden or even allege Biden gave it to him on the campaign trail.

Then there’s the idea that the media attention from both Trump’s having Covid-19 will distract from a certain First Lady’s most recent backlash. This week, secretly recorded tapes of Melania talking to her former friend and aide Stephanie Winston Wolkoff showed Melania complaining about the criticism she received after children were separated from parents at the US border and decorating the White House for Christmas.’ I’m working like a – my ass off at Christmas stuff that you know, who gives a f_ck about Christmas stuff and decoration?’ she said. ‘And they said, ‘Ooh what about the children, that they were separated? ’ Give me a f_cking break.’

The tapes, played on CNN, attracted much backlash – prompting theories that the Trumps have now faked catching coronavirus to garner some positive support in the form of empathy. But there’s one problem with that theory (or many, let’s be real). When you consider the fact that Trump’s entire image depends on him being seen as a strong, no-bullshit alpha male (the ‘healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency’, remember?) it seems unlikely he would fake coronavirus for sympathy of all things. That’s why there’s people on the other side of the conspiracy theory Twitter, alleging he’s faking coronavirus so he can miraculously recover in a few days and validate his ongoing claims that it’s ‘no big deal’.

Just this morning, it was announced that Donald Trump has been named the world’s biggest instigator of coronavirus conspiracy theories. Researchers at Cornell University found that he appeared in over a third of the ‘misinformation conversations’ about Covid-19 in a study of 38million English-language articles about the outbreak.

Should he return triumphantly from a positive test result then, despite being vulnerable at 74 years old and clinically obese, there’s no doubt he would emphatically seek validation for his irresponsible, non-science-based opinions on Covid-19 by claiming if he can survive, anyone can. In fact, it’s his own agenda attempting to convince everyone that the virus is a hoax that has led to this immediate suspicion of his positive test.

Because when you really consider the point that we’re at in politics, with a US President that can boldly make false statements with no repercussion and convince millions that the media holding him to account are unreliable, it’s no surprise conspiracy theories now come in droves whenever a breaking news story trends.

Just check them out for yourself…

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